Finally touched a peg down on the VFR....

........so I never go too fast, but the roads were so nice and clear on a nice long 150 mile ride today in the north georgia hills. (Route 19/129 north of Dahlonega kicks A$$. So does 60 north of Suches). Anyways, I had a good clear road and yeah, finally, got the right peg to scrape. Like many riders I never like to push my tires as much as they're capable of. My last bike was a Honda Hawk GT, which is so lightweight and flickable that touching the pegs was an everyday thing. On the VFR it's so much heavier it feels like I'm pushing it to hard when I lean over much, so I'm not used to the pegs touching. As soon as I did it spooked me a little and I wiggled in the middle of the corner a bit. No problems though. The suspension loaded down through the corner and pushed the pegs a bit closer to the ground, and "screetch!!!!!!!". The tires have so much more grip than I would use, of course some of those tar strips make the bike slip a little. Overall great roads because they pave most of the shoulders as well, so cars that put the wheels over the white lines don't kick gravel up onto the roads. So my query is do most of you feel that it's safe to push the bike hard like that on public roads? :lobby:

[image: View Post]WildsViFfeR, on 10 July 2011 - 10:54 PM, said:

........so I never go too fast, but the roads were so nice and clear on a nice long 150 mile ride today in the north georgia hills. (Route 19/129 north of Dahlonega kicks A$$. So does 60 north of Suches). Anyways, I had a good clear road and yeah, finally, got the right peg to scrape. Like many riders I never like to push my tires as much as they're capable of. My last bike was a Honda Hawk GT, which is so lightweight and flickable that touching the pegs was an everyday thing. On the VFR it's so much heavier it feels like I'm pushing it to hard when I lean over much, so I'm not used to the pegs touching. As soon as I did it spooked me a little and I wiggled in the middle of the corner a bit. No problems though. The suspension loaded down through the corner and pushed the pegs a bit closer to the ground, and "screetch!!!!!!!". The tires have so much more grip than I would use, of course some of those tar strips make the bike slip a little. Overall great roads because they pave most of the shoulders as well, so cars that put the wheels over the white lines don't kick gravel up onto the roads. So my query is do most of you feel that it's safe to push the bike hard like that on public roads? :lobby:


That's awesome. We hit 60 through Suches and Dahlonega on Sat morning. Nice ride and little traffic to contend with. Word of caution. We stopped at the Cooper Creek gas station since it was one of the very few around, pork sandwhich was $7 and it was microwaved. BBQ reheated in a microwave in N GA???? And $7 to boot!!!
Anyway, great riding up there, I put the new* (not so new anymore) Bridgestone Battle Axe's on and it's a much more responsive tire in the twisties than the sport touring (at least for how I ride) They are much softer but I feel much more confident leaning and pushing in corners than I did on my ST tires.
BTW - there is an awesome viewpoint right off of 60 where 19 splits off, just not a good place to take a picture, I need to get that sometime!

When I ride my bike, the limiting factor is me. I haven't reached the other side of what my bike and my tyres can do. Not by a long shot.

Yeah I had forgotten how much fun those roads are since it's been awhile since riding them. Did Rt 60 to 180 to 129 and then hit Rib Country BBQ in Cleveland, GA on the way back to Buford. Something about riding and BBQ joints just goes together like bread and butter. Pulled pork smothered in hot and BBQ sauce on a texas toast bun with a side of baked beans, slaw, fries, and sweet tea. :fing02: ........ Anyways, I am doing Deals Gap next weekend so I wanted to do a warmer upper trip here in GA first. I'm planning on doing route 28 to Deals, and then mix in the Cherohala. Damn we are so lucky to have roads like these. I feel bad for the folks who live in the flat and straight states. At least there's always on-ramps for them, but man, what roads and scenery to boot. Looking down over the rest of GA from up high as you cross the Appalachian Trail, the cool air, beautiful forests, and smooth blacktop. It was 95 degrees in Buford according to the VFR, and 75 in the Suches area. Sweet way to spend a Sunday!!!

[image: View Post]timmythecop, on 10 July 2011 - 11:18 PM, said:

When I ride my bike, the limiting factor is me. I haven't reached the other side of what my bike and my tyres can do. Not by a long shot.

+1.
That sums up the way I ride. I don't want to find out the limit....I like my body and bike in one piece, so I always default to caution. I saw lots of boys in blue out on the road today making sure of that also!

Depends! If you still have the feeler pegs in place, smacking those is a common occurence.

If you're dragging the pegs when there are NO feeler pegs fitted, you're probably too fast for the road because there is absoutely no buffer zone to corner harder in an emergency.

When I first started riding, I was dragging pegs (without feelers) and my headers everywhere. However, my body position sucked!! I now ride faster than that, and rarely touch pegs or headers down. Why is that? Superbike school! The bike stays more upright, but *I* lean off the bike now.

Yeah I noticed on some of the tighter corners that it felt a lot safer to not use the seat. Just tried to avoid it and leaned off from one side to the other without ever sitting as the corners came fast and furious left and right one after another. Good point about leaving yourself some safety zone by not leaning the *bike* over to far. Gives you opportunity to lean more if needed.

[image: View Post]WildsViFfeR, on 10 July 2011 - 11:42 PM, said:

Yeah I noticed on some of the tighter corners that it felt a lot safer to not use the seat.

Actually, Superbike school doesn't teach you to get off the seat, they teach you how to lean! The technique is more about getting your head and shoulders down REALLY low - under the mirrors almost - looking much further through the corner than you normally would, and using your outer leg and thigh to hold on to the bike.

I still have crappy technique, but I've always been fast coming out of corners. I use this to my advantage on the road - Slow In, Fast Out (SIFO). On the track it's another matter altogether.

[image: View Post]timmythecop, on 10 July 2011 - 11:18 PM, said:

When I ride my bike, the limiting factor is me. I haven't reached the other side of what my bike and my tyres can do. Not by a long shot.


I completely agree with this statement. I am a bigger guy and honestly it scares the hell out me to lean to much..... road rash sucks and so does a cast in the middle of the summer, don't ask how I know this :biggrin:

I keep modifying my bike's hard parts to keep them from hitting the
highway... because all though it was some what fun the day the peg hit
but it was a seat sucking pucker moment on the day the exhaust hit...

[image: Posted Image]
RC45PegScrape by busylittleshop, on Flickr

[image: Posted Image]
RC45PipeCrunch02 by busylittleshop, on Flickr

[Ive seen people drag hard parts and the bike is barely leaning, yet there are those who can drag elbows with out dragging hard parts, whats that about?

I do know you guys crash way too much >G

[image: View Post]timmythecop, on 10 July 2011 - 11:18 PM, said:

When I ride my bike, the limiting factor is me. I haven't reached the other side of what my bike and my tyres can do. Not by a long shot.


I actually made a thread about this very subject not too long ago. I just don't have enough "Trust" in the bike to lean it down. Or, it just may be faith in my skills. Either or... I have yet to even come close to scraping a peg.

Both the VFR, and modern tyres, have a level of capability that is hard to believe until you test it - especially tyres.

Back in 1998 I was at a trackday with a mate on a 1994 VFR750 with Racetech springs in the front and otherwise stock, right down to the Dunlop D205 sport/tour (emphasis on tour) tyres. He was comfortably turning 1m 54s laps, which is only 24 seconds slower than the Superbike/500GP lap record... so the bike can do it, with the right guy on board. I have myself had my right footpeg so far into the tarmac that it was folded up hard enough to pinch my foot and hurt it, with the bellypan scraping, but I never felt like I was going to lose traction, and that _was_ on a public road.

I don't recommend it on public roads though, as said you need to leave a safety margin that is not quite as necessary on the track. But rest assured your tyres have more grip than you can comprehend.

BTW that folded peg incident was only at about 80-90km/h in a 45km/h sign-posted right-hander (remembering we ride on the left here) so not too big a deal if it had let go - I'd have just gone for a slide.

How I learned to do that was to push on each ride just a little further, feeling the limits out, this way you improve your ability and continually learn about what the bike is doing and what it can do. Yep, there's an occasional pucker moment, but you don't get something for nothing.

If the condition is right, you can scrape pegs going fairly slowly through a given curve. I had an inclined, cambered curve in my old neighborhood in Raleigh, NC that I could scrape the pegs (ate up the feelers) on my 3rd gen, doing about 30-35 mph. Going home, the pitch left to right was up, which I think is called off camber, so it was uphill toward the lean side. Very easy to drag the peg. Then same thing heading out from home, just downhill then. Made the lean angles feel exaggerated. Was lots of fun.
Same thing on I-77 in West Virginia, but you can go pretty fast there. The curves are cambered, because of the mountains, I guess. Nice riding.
Go where you feel comfortable riding. If full lean, full throttle is not for you, don't. No one here with think any less of you. That is one of the great things about this site: even the squidliest, or most skilled riders respect that you know your own limits. Having the most fun with our bikes is what we are here for. Have some fun, push it a little if you like; many here can push these bikes pretty fast I have heard. Or not. If you ride with these guys, I think there is room for everyone. I personally can't wait to get involved in a group ride (had to miss T-Mac this year, it was on graduation weekend! Maybe next year's won't coincide with my wife's graduation!!) now that I am employed.
Enjoy your VFR!
Cheers!!

I scraped a peg in my garage once. :laughing6-hehe: No plastics damage, thanks to the Slider.

I used to drag them sans feelers from time to time. Especially at the few track days I did on my '99. Never liked that! I swapped the pegs for RC51 pegs, not for that reason but they are thinner. Last time I touched anything was my right toes on Blood Mtn. Poor technique on my part for sure...
These days I'm running it with the rear shock shimmed 5mm, so that raises the rear quite a bit.
I don't ever drag a knee on the street, but I go back and forth from day to day on how much I do move. Some days not at all, some days a lot, most days some.
GA60 from Suches to Morgantown is great! Maybe my favorite ride. Big variety of conditions, rarely any LEO's and light traffic. From there 68 to Tellico is also fun. And takes you to the Cherohala. Can't beat that!

Couple pics of V-Strom pegs. No these aren't mine ( I have yet to touch down a peg on the VFR) but just gives you an idea of what is possible. First pic is the rider peg second is the passenger peg. Yes he is grinding passenger pegs with a passenger on board. On a fooking V-Strom! I've followed him while he was doing this, and he makes it look easy. Bastard.

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Touching the pegs on the VFR is simple, especially with the long "feelers" that are on the bottom of them. If you are dragging pegs all that means is you need to get your arse off the seat! :D

Love the pics of the footpegs ground down to nothing. HA!
The idea for me is to use the pegs as a guide to see if I'm pushing too hard, so that I know if I'm starting to get near a threshold of possible danger. I do trust the ridiculous levels of grip the tires have, I just don't trust the cleanliness of the roads, or who might be pulling out of a driveway, and as Kaldek pointed out, what if you do overcook a corner? Cross the double yellow and peril awaits. There have been a few times I thought that I got lucky if I did something stupid. I don't so much care about going fast either, it's just fun to scrape the pegs now and then as a sort of item I can check off of my "things to do" list as a VFR owner.
PS. I can't quite envision scraping the headers, that's not on my check-off list!

Scraping a peg and not trusting your tires implies to me you may be pushing it or your technique or suspension might need some fine tuning. I remember my first major peg scrape. Scared me. Took the peg feelers off. I've been studying Nick Ienatch Sport Bike Riding Technique and it's helped me overcome some long time bad habits I had even after 20+ years of riding. Now I'm beginning to know what people who trust their tires are talking about. So yes I trust my tires on public roads but only when the coast is clear.

Long Short. If you are scraping pegs and interested in going faster now is the time to take a track class or buy Nick's book and practice excellent technique. It also helps as in my case to have a very skilled rider follow you and give you some pointers. A single tip from "DasBones" ,formerly of this forum, gave me on body position completely transformed the way my tires and bike feels in the turns.

Good tires, good technique, good judgement, what's not to trust? Oh yeah, every thing and everybody else. Like the station wagon I came upon while rounding a blind turn driving in reverse in my damn lane. As in how fast can you brake?

Have fun be safe. Live and learn. Do a track day.

[image: View Post]Knife, on 11 July 2011 - 09:35 AM, said:

I scraped a peg in my garage once. :laughing6-hehe: No plastics damage, thanks to the Slider.



That is too funny Knife! :fing02: